


Something Borrowed

by PBWritesStuff



Category: Watchmen - All Media Types
Genre: A slightly kinder world, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Rule 63, There are background pairings but they aren't the focus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-16 04:15:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,199
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28575852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PBWritesStuff/pseuds/PBWritesStuff
Summary: When she first met Eddie, it was down at the docks, and she was following up on a lead.Now what's a pretty gal like you doing in a place like this?" He'd said from the entrance of the alleyway, and she'd raised a blonde eyebrow in something like annoyance."I'm investigating the disappearance of the vigilante known as Hooded Justice. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"Or, Adrian is a girl. Some things are different, but some things always stay the same.
Relationships: Edward Blake/Adrian Veidt
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Awhile back, I read the incredible story Cinderella by Not_You, which features a great representation of rule 63 Adrian. It got me thinking about how the Watchmen Universe (and my personal OTP) would be different if Adrian was a girl.
> 
> I wanted to take the idea of an OzyCom pairing with Adrian as a girl, and explore how the dynamic is different. Because I can't see the Comedian in anything resembling a happy and healthy relationship with a woman, I ended up writing a story about a slightly softer world, where the unforgivable things never happened. 
> 
> That mindset ended up carrying over to some of the other characters too (the Roche case didn't break Rorschach, Hooded Justice was never an irredeemable douche-canoe, etc.)
> 
> I originally posted the prologue to this story, and immediately took it down, thinking things like "Adrienne is too much of a Mary Sue here" and "The plot is too farfetched", "would anyone even read an OzyCom story where Adrian is a girl?" But then I decided to say fuck it. If anyone enjoys my self indulgent fix-it-fic/rule-63 fusion, that's great. If no one likes it, well, I wasn't writing it for them. I was writing it because I've never written anything so hetero before and it was a fun exercise.
> 
> However, as a long-time watchmen kink meme lurker, I'm certain that at least some people will read this.

When Adrienne Veidt was ten years old, she was kidnapped, by men who wanted a ransom from her parents. Perhaps, in another world, it would not have happened. (And some part of her thought, with bitterness that was too strong for her years, that little girls were always in more danger than little boys.)  
  
It was 1949.  
  
Addi's parents were strict, but caring, in their own way, and she had no doubt that they would pay the ransom immediately, as soon as they got confirmation that she was safe and alive. She knew how to dislocate her thumb in order to escape from handcuffs and rope, but then what? What big men with guns waited beyond the closed door, just waiting for her to try something? She knew that she was worth more to them alive, but if they were thugs, ruled by their emotions and whims, they might shoot first and panic later.  
  
Adrienne thought, with a searching look at the room around her, that if she had a bladed weapon, she could cut through their Achilles tendons - little girls were ankle-height, and it was the perfect way to disable a much larger assailant.  
  
There was nothing in the room she could use though, no glass or knives, and for all her vast intelligence, Adrienne was still a ten year old girl, who fought back sniffles as she wished she was home.  
  
Eventually, after she'd cried herself out, a hazy plan began to formulate in her mind. First, get out of the handcuffs using the dislocation trick she'd read about. Next, she needed to wriggle out of the ropes that tied her to the chair - it would take time, but they hadn't tied her too tightly - probably because they thought a little girl wouldn't be able to escape, even if she wasn't scared half to death. Addi was regretting all the time she'd wasted crying.  
  
It took time, but Adrienne found that if she used friction and constant movement, she could loosen the ropes. They were secured with a basic square knot, the same kind she used to tie her shoelaces. Even better, the knot was behind her, where she could reach it with her freed hands. She fought through the pain of a dislocated thumb to loosen the knot, little by little, until she was able to slip out of the ropes, all by herself.  
  
She'd read about this in a book about Houdini and other escape artists, but reading about dislocation and fixing it in real life were two different things. Adrienne rolled up the hem of her frilly dress and bit down on it to muffle the inevitable screams that came pouring out when she tried to pop her thumb back into place. It took four tries, but she did it, and slumped against the dirty wall with relief. She needed both her hands for phase two of the escape plan.  
  


* * *

  
Rolf Müller was in his element as he tore through the hideout in the warehouse district. He didn't think that a big-time criminal was behind this thing, so it felt a bit like a vacation compared to the cases he'd been taking on recently. A little girl, the child of German immigrants, had been kidnapped.  
  
He hated to admit it, but it hit close to home in a way that he didn't care to think about.  
  
With a brutal kick, he broke the lock on a steel door that he was certain led to the room the little girl was being held in. He rushed inside, and immediately fell over a tripwire that was so thick he'd been stupid not to see it. It was a little puzzling, because so far the warehouse had been primitive. No traps of any kind. But then, Hooded Justice looked up and saw a girl with a chair, poised and ready to strike.  
  
" _Oh, gescheiten mädchen._ " He chuckled, unable to help himself. Adrienne had hesitated, because she'd intended to hit the first person who entered the room, but this man didn't look at all like her captors. Also, he spoke German, just like her parents did, and Addi lowered the chair with a stunned expression.  
  
" _Ja. Herr..._ " Adrienne paused and looked him over, finally deciding on what he reminded her of. "... _Herr Henker._ "  
  
Herr Henker. Mr. Executioner. He seemed amused by that.  
  
"Hooded Justice. I'm here to rescue you." The man replied, and Addi frowned. That wasn't a _real_ name, and his accent was different than her parents'. She hadn't been born in Germany, and she thought her mama and papa might know what the difference was.  
  
" _Ich heiße Adrienne Veidt_." She answered, with a curtsey. " _Dankeshön, Herr Henker_."  
  
He smiled under the hood, and Adrienne could tell by the way his dark eyes crinkled at the ends.  
  
They walked out of the warehouse together, with Addi keeping a wary distance at first. The huge man wearing spandex tried to make small talk.  
  
"That was very impressive, what you did." He grumbled in a low voice, and the girl shrugged.  
  
"I wish I had a knife. I would have cut their Achilles tendons." She said regretfully.  
  
Hooded Justice laughed, and pulled a thin rectangular thing from his back pocket. It was a pocket knife. He handed it to the girl, and it looked so tiny in his palm that she wondered why he had it in the first place. Could a man with such large hands use such a tiny blade with anything resembling efficiency?  
  
"Take it," he prodded. "I can get another."  
  
When Adrienne Veidt arrived home, her mama smothered her with kisses, and papa took the man by an elbow and led him off to speak in hushed tones, German flowing between them, too fast and low for her to hear.  
  
It was 1949, and Adrienne was ten years old when Rolf Müller hung up his mask and became her family's security consultant.


	2. Chapter 2

When she first met Eddie, it was down at the docks, and she was following up on a lead.  
  
Now what's a pretty gal like you doing in a place like this?" He'd said from the entrance of the alleyway, and she'd raised a blonde eyebrow in something like annoyance.  
  
"I'm investigating the disappearance of the vigilante known as Hooded Justice. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"  
  
He grinned then, an ugly smirk that twisted the scar on his face, and made the end of his cigar look like a burning eye in the near-darkness. He strolled nonchalantly into the alleyway, closer to Adrienne as he replied.  
  
"Hypothetically, let's say I did have something to do with it." He said, with a little puff of smoke, and Hatshepsut felt something clench in her stomach, like a cold seed of fear.  
  
The Comedian breathed out another puff of smoke, and smirked.  
  
"What would you _do_ about it?"  
  
Addi took a breath, letting it fill her lungs. She counted back from five before she eventually exhaled, finally replied.  
  
"First, I'd ask, _hypothetically_ of course."  
  
"Of course."  
  
" _Hypothetically_ , I'd ask if you'd been paid for your involvement. If it was a government job, an assassination. That sort of thing."  
  
He smiled then, and it was the meanest smile she'd ever seen.  
  
"And if, hypothetically," he'd said next, slowly, deliberately. "It was just for the damn fun of it?"  
  
In another universe, he might have surprised Ozymandias with a devastating uppercut, and not much else. In another universe, Adrian might have had no real stake in the death of a mask that nobody had ever really liked in the first place. But in this universe, Adrienne Veidt's parents had died in a car crash when she was barely fifteen, and the only soul in the entire world she still trusted was her family's security advisor, who'd taken her in, even though he and his partner were trying desperately to stay under the radar and seem normal. Even though he didn't know a damn thing about children, and girls in particular.  
  
Instead of replying, Adrienne punched Eddie Blake in the nose, and heard a satisfying crunch. She'd aimed at all the really vulnerable spots, because he had pure muscle that she could never attain with her dancer's body, no matter how hard she trained. She'd had to take every advantage she knew to keep her upper hand, but as he crumpled to the ground, spitting blood and clutching his balls, she narrowed her eyes.  
  
"If, hypothetically, this story was true, I'd tell you that Rolf Müller was like a father to me, and if I found any proof whatsoever that you had _anything_ to do with his disappearance, I'd slit your throat, and leave you where no one would ever find your body."  
  
Addi stepped back then, and gave him breathing room, though she still had multiple escape routes planned, should he decide to try and fight back. To her surprise, the Comedian had grinned at her through the blood dripping down his face, and leaned against a dumpster as he stood, shakily to his feet.  
  
"You've got a real fuckin' punch, kid." He'd said, with something like admiration in his tone. But then the sneer returned, and he spat blood at the ground. "But you're lucky you were born a girl. If you'd been born with a _prick_ , Hooded Justice might have been more than just a 'father figure' to you."  
  
"What do you mean." She'd asked, although it wasn't really a question, and she didn't really plan to believe anything he said. The Comedian had smiled then, like he'd finally come to the punchline.  
  
"Rolf Müller was a sadist and a pedophile, and if you were a boy, he would have _raped_ you."  
  
"You're lying!" Hatshepsut had hissed out from between clenched teeth.  
  
"The funniest part is that you really didn't know." Eddie had chuckled, and as Adrienne turned her back, he called out to her.  
  
"Hey, see you around, sweetheart." He'd said, in a tone that spoke of danger and something else. "Maybe we'll fight again, and next time, we'll just _see_ who comes out on top."  
  
She had visited Nelson Gardner that night, and poured out all of her thoughts and worries over tea. They had been close, ever since she first met him while staying with the man she'd affectionately called Uncle Rolf, and sometimes still _Herr Henker_. He had taught her so much about life and herself.  
  
The lines around his mouth had tightened when Adrienne mentioned the Comedian.  
  
"Tell me, Nelson. Is it true? What he said about Uncle Rolf?"  
  
Nelson let out a little sigh, and then a chuckle.  
  
"You know he was a sadist. You know about what our relationship was like. If he wasn't hurting anyone who didn't want to be hurt, what did it matter?"  
  
Truly, early on in their... Whatever it was, Adrienne had figured out what was going on between 'Herr Henker' and his roommate, and it had given her the courage to examine and accept her own feelings about pain and submission, all the things she'd deliberately pushed to the back of her mind because she wanted to be strong. Because she was scared that her thoughts on the matter were influenced by her gender and the society she lived in. She had accepted the fact that some people liked to hurt, and some liked to _be_ hurt, and some people (the kind of person Addi was slowly beginning to believe she was) liked both. Some people liked neither, and that was fine too.  
  
"That wasn't the part that bothered me." She murmured.  
  
"Adrienne..." Nelson sighed again. "We grew up in the depression. Back then, people thought differently about things, and it wasn't strange for a girl to get married at fifteen to a man twice her age. Did Rolf sleep with teenagers at that time? Probably. I didn't know him then. But we were all trying to get by, back in those days."  
  
She felt a little warm glow inside the pit of her, where the cold seed had been.  
  
"You mean. Not... Not like, pre-pubescent children." Adrienne murmured. "You mean teenagers."  
  
"Yes." Gardner affirmed. "And never without consent. I know Rolf was an angry man, and he probably made mistakes in his lifetime, but he wasn't a _rapist_."  
  
Addi could finally breathe again, and she could think back to the encounter on the docks with a degree of clarity. She remembered the half-smirk on Eddie's face as he smoked in the alley, the manic grin as he looked up at her with blood running down his chin.  
  
"The Comedian, on the other hand." Nelson had said then, snapping her back into reality. "He tried to rape Sally Jupiter while we were all in the Minutemen together. You should probably stay away from him, Addi. He's nothing but trouble."  
  
And so she'd tried to forget the way it made her feel when he'd promised her a rematch, tried to ignore the thrill that would come from either outcome, winning or losing, and focused on the anger she felt. He might have killed the man who'd raised her after her parents' accident.  
  
It didn't _matter_ how damn attractive he was.


End file.
